Ukraine's Naftogaz believes that Russian Gazprom is preparing a new gas crisis in January and February 2017, as stated by the Ukrainian company's press-service.

Earlier, Ukraine imposed a fine of 172 billion hryvnia on Gazprom. In turn, Miscow said that Kyiv may collect the fine by withdrawing gas. By doing so, the risk of disrupting the gas transit to the EU through Ukrainian territory is possible, the Russian company claims.

During two days of talks, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to settle the long territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands, which were ceded to the Soviet Union after World War II. The parties, however, agreed to continue the dialogue and carry out joint economic activities on the disputed islands, Japanese media reported on Friday, December 16th, following the talks.

During the talks, Putin and Abe negotiated easing travel restrictions between the …

Kyiv is preparing to expand the list of Russian citizens and officials who are subject to sanctions for their role in the incarceration of Ukrainian political prisoners, as stated by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, RIA Novosti reported.

"We will try to adapt this list to the extent that we receive clear information about who is involved in [incarcerating Ukrainian] political prisoners. To put the person on the sanctions list, we need real proof,” Klimkin stated.

According to US President Barack Obama, at the September G20 summit in China, after a conversation with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, the attacks on the Democratic party servers during the election campaign stopped as Obama threatened Russia with "significant consequences." Speaking at a press conference in Washington on Friday, December 16th, Obama said that after a tete-a-tete conversation with Putin, the cyberattacks stopped, but the leak through WikiLeaks happened earlier so …

Ukrainians have filed 3,000 individual lawsuits with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against Russia due to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, as outlined in the ECHR's annual summary for 2016.

In addition, the ECHR is considering four interstate lawsuits filed by Ukraine against the Russian Federation. It should be noted that Russia has traditionally been ranked first on the absolute number of complaints to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia assigned land in the Alūksne district to build fortifications aimed at protecting the eastern borders of the country to the Defense Ministry, as reported by Delfi news agency. The area in the Pededze parish is 1.68 hectares. The Ministry did not specify what is going to be built there.

The Pededze parish borders Russia. The Infantry School of the Armed Forces as well as the Lacusils training ground are located in the Alūksne district.

Crimean Tatars are being systematically persecuted after the Russian annexation of the Crimea in 2014. The cases against the activists of the Crimean Tatar community are analyzed in the report of the international human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) "Crimea in the darkness: the persecution of dissent", published on Thursday, December 15th.

According to the Director of AI in Europe and Central Asia, John Dalhuisen, Crimean Tatars became the most prominent and united group that …

The Ministers of Defense of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stated that improvement of relations between NATO and the Russian Federation in 2017 is unlikely, the ERR.ee portal reported. The representatives also agree that work will continue according to the OSCE Vienna document.

The ministers signed a traditional communiqué on cooperation, noting that next year will have strategic importance for the region because NATO military forces will be deployed there.

The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) claims that they have established a representative office in the Italian city of Turin. This information was confirmed by the Italian team of Stopfake.org project, which addresses and refutes false information about events in Ukraine. Stopfake confirmed that this information is accurate.

"We have learned that the official opening of the DPR’s representative office in Italy would be held on December 14 at 6.30 p.m. on the premises of the …

The Prime Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, stated that Serbian authorities plan to purchase aircraft from the Russian Federation and helicopters from the European Union in 2017, thus strengthening its air force. Serbia has formed an agreement with Russia that includes six previously donated MiG-29 fighter jets, which have served the Serbian Air Force for two years. Serbia will fund a major overhaul of these fighters, Reuters reported.